The Boy With Nothing to Lose
by xwerewolfgirlx
Summary: He had lost everyone who was important to him. Just as he thought life couldn't have gotten any worse, he gets told by his once enemy that he must go back to Brecon Beacons. As if suicidal missions aren't enough, he has to deal with the SAS in between.
1. Prologue

I once wondered why people said they had nothing to lose, I always thought that everybody had something to lose. People, possessions, titles, these were the things that everybody's scared of losing. So my question is, 'is there actually a person who had none of these things to lose?' and now I've got my answer.

Yes.

Yes there is someone who has nothing to lose. That someone is me.

I've lost everyone whom I cared about, Jack, Tom, Ian and now Sabina. Now that I've lost all of them, possessions and titles mean nothing to me.

I once was the best spy of the world. Now? Now I'm the world's deadliest weapon against criminals. I'm armed. I'm ready. I'm lethal. Most importantly, I've got nothing to lose.

That's why I accept every mission thrown my way. I accept suicide missions, missions no one is willing to go on, because for me, there's nothing to lose.

So what if I die? No one's going to care, because all those who've cared are dead. Why did they die? Because of me. All those I've cared about died because of me.

I've been tortured many times. It's a work hazard, but nothing hurts more than seeing the ones you love die because of you.

But although they're dead, they are the ones keeping me alive. I've got nothing to lose, but I don't want to die worthless. If I die, no,_ when _I die, I want it to be because I was trying to save the world, not because I wanted to kill myself.

That's why when I get tortured, I never give up the info they want. Because I know that Ian would be disappointed that I gave in to the pain.

That's why when I get captured, I never give up. I keep going until I find a way out. Because I know that Jack would be disappointed that I never made it home.

That's why when Blunt and Jones give me a mission that I know would be suicidal. I still take it. Because Tom and Sabina would be disappointed that I gave in to the fear.

They may be dead, but they keep me alive. I keep going through the hell on earth because I know they would be disappointed if I killed myself. If I just stood there and let death take me. They would be disappointed I didn't fight.

They died for me. I have to make them proud.

* * *

_Please review, this is my first fanfic and I would really appreciate it if you could give some comments._

_Ally  
_


	2. Chapter 1

_Opps, I realised I forgot to put a disclaimer on my prologue so this one will be for the prologue and this chapter._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or any characters from the books._

* * *

Sixteen.

That's how old he is.

The world's deadliest weapon against criminals.

Unbelievable, right?

If someone told you that the world's best spy is sixteen, you'll probably say 'Suuuure' and laugh and say something about them being on drugs.

In two years of Alex Rider's life, he's lost everything worth losing. The day his uncle died, was the day his life started to change in an unbelievable way.

The first thing he learnt was that the pain of losing someone you love made you appreciate those around you. He started to appreciate Jack more, he thanked her for staying with him when a normal housekeeper would have just picked up their bags and left.

Then he learnt that curiosity may not have killed the cat, but it did have a big part its demise. After all, if he hadn't gone looking for his uncle's car and then jumping out of the banks window, MI6 wouldn't have been able to see how good he was, and he wouldn't have been forced upon the road that he knew would lead to his death.

Sometimes he'd wonder. What if he hadn't gone to satisfy his curiosity? Would MI6 set up a trap to test him? Or would they have left him alone? At the most inconvenient of times, these types of questions would pop up in his mind.

Like that time in Australia when he was locked up in a cage with the world's deadliest snake: The Fierce Snake. Or the other time in Poland when he was nearly run over by a train because the crazy guy who wanted to destroy the world thought it would be funny to tie him to the train tracks.

At this moment he is chained up somewhere in Norway and is about to be tortured to death, and the thing that's his greatest problem isn't even about getting out.

No, his biggest problem right now is: Would he be doing this if Yassen never killed his uncle? Would he be as good as he is today? Would he have been better because he got more time to prepare? Or is the reason that he's so good was because he started young?

These questions were racing through his head while the handsome man in front of him kept whipping.

Most people think that the best torturers would be ugly and scary looking. Oh, how wrong they were. The lovely young man in front of him looks like a angel, perfect hair, perfect face and perfect body.

_And _Alex thought _he is perfect at whipping too. It's been god knows how long and he still isn't tired!_

He had stopped trying to stop the moans of pain long ago. He's been here for nine days now and he must admit, he was ready to get out. These men were desperate for the info he had on MI6. Over the nine days, he only got six hours of rest every twenty-four hours, and he was pretty sure that was just to make sure he didn't die.

There were doctors who would treat him after every round so that he could last longer. The woman in charge was either really smart or just overly cautious because there were fifty guards posted down the hallway. Alex was unfortunate enough to have to fight them on his third day when he was trying to escape.

_For god's sake! The man must have arms made of steel! It's been at least five hours since he started and he hasn't broken his pace once!_

Alex was pretty sure he would either die of pain or blood loss pretty soon. Just as he thought of this he heard gunfire.

There are two reasons for gunfire, the first one being that his enemy's enemy is here whom are his allies or the second being his enemy's enemy is here whom are also his enemies.

Alex was hoping it was the former and not the latter.

* * *

A week later Alex woke up on his bed in St. Dominic's, he swore they reserved a room just for him since he visited them so much. He knew nearly all the nurses names and three doctors who took turns patching him up and five others who were backups.

Not even a minute after he woke up, Mrs. Jones walked into his room.

"Alex, you did a great job on that mission."

No 'Hello, how are you' or even a 'Good morning' no, they got straight to the point.

"We were able to locate the nuclear bomb with the info that you sent us and although it was unfortunate that you got captured, you were still able to save the world."

Mrs. Jones gave him a rare smile. After his tenth mission, Mrs. Jones started being more welcoming and friendly towards him. It was probably because he decided to join MI6, but rumors were going around MI6 saying that the heads were training him to take over. Of course it's only a rumor, but rumors in MI6 tend to always be more accurate than others.

Alex wasn't sure if he wanted to be the head of special ops but he was sure that he had a hell of a long time to consider since he was only sixteen and MI6 probably wanted to use him for at least another 20 years. After all, he is their best field agent.

"Thank you Mrs. Jones but can we please discuss whatever it is that you came to discuss because I'm still fairly tired."

Alex knew that Mrs. Jones didn't just come to congratulate him on a job well done. And although he wasn't actually that tired since he slept for nearly a whole week, he was pretty sure he would be exhausted if he had to hold a pleasant conversation about the weather with Mrs. Jones.

Although they got along fine, they still didn't trust each other completely. Alex still had to play around with his words when talking with the heads of special ops. Just like how they play with their words, which just makes it more tiring for Alex because he has to try and decipher their real meanings while hiding his.

Both parties didn't know when they will stop this ridicules habit but they were sure that it wouldn't stop today.

Mrs. Jones stuck another peppermint into her mouth which Alex knew as a habit of hers when she got nervous.

This hiked up his curiosity. After sending him on missions that she knew he knew was suicidal, you'd think there wasn't much left to say that might make her nervous. What could be worse than sending him on missions they both knew he had a near zero chance of surviving?

A week later and Alex would be wishing that she never came to visit and say those six little words.

"You're going back to Brecon Beacons."

Mrs. Jones watched his face carefully to see if she could figure out how he was feeling, but Alex was a professional. He kept his face carefully blank and emptied all emotions out of his eyes. Blank. His whole body said nothing. Even his posture was a posture of one that gave nothing away.

Well, she didn't have to wait long to find out a bit of what he was feeling.

"WHAT?"

It was a very, very loud bit that was probably overtaking all other emotions.

Yep, Alex Rider was angry.

"Alex, please listen-"

"Excuse me but did you just say that I'm going back to Brecon Beacons?"

Ah, here comes the calm façade. Might have fooled everyone on Earth but Mrs. Jones knew that he was boiling with anger and that he heard perfectly well what she said. He just didn't want to believe it.

Alex has already lost everything that's important to him and now he was being sent to hell on Earth. He was pretty sure that it was Blunt's idea but he knew Mrs. Jones agreed and thought it would be good for him.

Alex had always possessed the skill to think of the pros and cons of a decision and right at this moment he wished that the drugs could cover up this skill, because the pros outweighed the cons, but then again, the con that was bugging him was that it was a hell hole. So naturally, he didn't want to go back.

But he either had the skill to think clearly with drugs in his body or the drugs they gave him were too weak to have that effect. He was pretty sure it was the latter since he could feel quite a bit of pain. Blunt and Jones were always afraid of him becoming addicted since he came in here needing them every couple of months.

"When your doctor says you are ready to leave, you will be sent back to Brecon Beacons because Mr. Blunt and I believe it will be in your best interest to touch up your skills. We thought it was inappropriate to have you live by yourself and since you are homeschooled we thought you wouldn't miss much. There are a lot more things to gain out of this experience Alex and we thought it would help keep you in shape for your next mission."

Mrs. Jones didn't really want to tell him the second piece of news that she was sure he would not take well to, so she decided to leave that for later when he was deemed able to discharge.

Alex knew that he had already lost this battle but he thought that he should put up a fight just to get the point across that he very much hated this arrangement. Since he joined MI6 he stopped fighting them and just took whatever mission they gave him, and since being an agent allowed you to carry weapons concealed, he didn't have much to fight them on.

"I do well with the teacher you assigned me and I've always kept fit in between missions. Plus, I doubt the SAS have much to teach me that I do not already know."

Alex presented all the facts to show that he did not need to go train with the SAS but he left out an important part that he knew Mrs. Jones would bring up.

"Yes Alex, but it would be safer for you with the SAS. Did you forget the bomb Black Dice planted in your house or the sniper sent by Capricorn that could have killed you if we didn't have a helicopter leaving the bank that just happened to go above your neighbourhood and spot the sniper."

Alex cursed in the eleven languages that he spoke fluently in his head and closed his eyes as a sign of acceptance.

Mrs. Jones nodded her head and left, leaving behind a very annoyed Alex who for once wished he could stay in the hospital forever.

* * *

_Did you like it? What do you think of it? I hope it wasn't too plain or boring._

_Please review_

_Ally  
_


	3. Chapter 2

_Thnx to all those who reviewed and added me to their story alerts! You guys made my day!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or any of the characters from the books._

_

* * *

_A week after Mrs. Jones had told Alex that he was going to go back to Brecon Beacons, Alex's doctor Dr. Powell, said that he was a go to discharge.

He said that Alex needed another month or so before he can go on missions again but it would be better if he waited two months. Blunt didn't really care if he was better; he just wanted Alex to be workable. He said these exact words to Mrs. Jones and although she knew that he did care, that he just didn't want to show it, the MI6 agent, Ben Daniels didn't know what Mrs. Jones knew.

So when he was sitting in Blunt's office and he said those exact words. He didn't take it well. He was furious, he had seen what the boy had to go through that time in Australia and the last time he worked with the teenage spy wasn't any better than the first.

Ironically, the two times he got to meet the heads of special ops face to face were all about Alex Rider. Normally, he just got orders from the desk agent who was in charge of him and a couple of other agents, but every time something that came up about Alex, it always brought him to the heads office.

Today he was getting orders to go to Brecon Beacons with Alex to top up his training since he had gotten injured on his last mission. Not seconds after Blunt said those words, he stood up and left the office slamming the door with a look that could kill on his face.

He knew the heads didn't care about Alex's wellbeing, but to say that all they wanted was for him to be workable! It make's Alex sound like a machine that broke down and got sent to the mechanics to get fixed! Not a human being who had saved the world more times than you could count!

Ben Daniels was furious and you could nearly see the steam coming out of his ears.

If the heads didn't look after Alex, then he swear he will!

* * *

"May I ask why you said those words in front of Agent Daniels?"

Mrs. Jones could normally figure out what Blunt was thinking but this time she was clueless. She had been there when the doctor had phoned and she knew that Blunt already knew about Alex's status and had said to her that Alex should probably get two months since he hadn't had a decent break for ages.

So naturally she was curious as to why the doctor called again and said the exact same thing as last time. She was also curious as to why Blunt put him on speakerphone and said those cold words in front of Daniels.

"We need someone to keep an eye on Alex, giving that job to Daniels who already cares about Alex is better than some random agent we have."

Blunt said in a monotone that Mrs. Jones knew he used when talking to Agents, so when he used it on her, she was even more curious.

"Yes we discussed that, but what I'm asking is why the doctor called you again and you gave him a completely different answer."

Although she didn't show it in her voice or expression, someone who knew her well enough would be able to see that she was starting to get frustrated.

"Ah, that."

"Yes that!" And now the world knew Mrs. Jones was frustrated!

"Well, doing something because it is your job is different to doing something because you want to do it. I gave Daniels a reason to care for Alex. We told him to keep an eye on him and to give a weekly report, we don't really need the report but the job is to give Daniels a reason to be with Alex and that one sided conversation I had with Dr. Powell gave him a reason to care for Alex and look out for him."

Blunt did a rare thing for him and sighed.

"Alex has been extraordinary these past two years, he gave everything his best but he has lost all those who loved him. I think it is time for him to have a family again, to have people who can express the care they have for him."

Maybe Blunt was getting soft at an old age, but the truth was that Alex Rider had rubbed off on the two heads of special ops and they had developed to care for him.

"So the doctor didn't really phone you? And you aren't sending Alex back into the field in a month's time?"

Mrs. Jones still couldn't quite believe Blunt. He wasn't a very caring man and he said very little words in front of anybody except herself. So when he said that he believed that Alex should have people who care for him around him, she really couldn't quite believe him.

"No Tulip, the doctor didn't phone me, it was a recording and no I am not going to send Rider back into the field in a month's time, at least, I won't unless I have to."

Mrs. Jones felt like groaning at the end, Alex is their last resort, they never use him unless they have to. Looks like some things never change.

* * *

While Mrs. Jones and Blunt were finishing off their conversation, Alex was packing his bag getting ready to leave his home. He hadn't realised he could ever miss this house so much since nobody lived in it apart from him, but right now it looked like heaven compared to where he's going.

Alex sighs as he thinks about the last time he was there, at least this time, his uniform fits him better and he was hoping against all hope that he wouldn't have to see K-unit. What are the chances of them and him being there at the same time? No, of course they aren't going to be there. Well, that's what he keeps telling himself anyways.

* * *

Sergeant Burns is truly annoyed; two years ago the higher ups sent a teenager, a bloody TEENAGER! And now two years later, they send two, TWO bloody MI6 agents!

_Great, _he thought _just great. My life couldn't possibly get any better!_

They say what you don't know can't hurt you. Well, the sergeant's getting two more hours before his life gets even better than now.

_Well, at least it isn't another teenager, we'll just have to deal with them for a couple of weeks. Wait, didn't the info sheet they sent me tell me how long they're staying…_

Oh, how wrong he was. He had no idea what's waiting for him.

Loud curses could be heard coming from the sergeant's office when he had found the sheet with the info of the two agents. Although he wasn't given a name, age or rank, the piece of paper had info that made him madder than mad.

He wasn't quite sure if he had ever been this angry, but he did know that he was doomed. On the piece of paper, it said that these two agents will be staying there permanently, only leaving for missions. And then it gets even better, it says that the younger of the two has sustained major injuries from his last mission and was to take it easy for a week before doing physical training.

Sergeant Burns had never felt like strangling the higher ups, but boy did he want to do it now. He really wanted to tear the piece of paper up and through it off the highest cliff.

Permanently. That's what the paper had said. Not only that, but injured? Who the hell sends an injured agent to a SAS training camp! And they want K-unit to look after them. His best unit looking after spies, what the hell! The sergeant wanted to scream out his frustration, K-unit was the best they had and he didn't want them wasting time with two spies who probably thought they were better than everyone here.

* * *

Two hours later, Alex Rider stepped of the jeep with his duffel bag in tow. MI6 had purposely been vague about who's going to train with him and that was not good. They had lost the 'hiding info from Alex' a while ago when they realised he'd do anything and everything, so they decided it would help him more if he knew everything there is to know. So when Blunt had briefed him with vague facts and half answers, Alex knew that it couldn't have been good.

They did say that he would have an agent from MI6 with him who was to report back to them every week. He knew they said this so he wouldn't cause too much trouble but what they had said next confused him. They had said that he was to train with different units with one of them being the main unit he trained with, and then they said that he will only work with this unit for now.

Work meant missions, but he was pretty sure he didn't need a SAS unit working with him since he normally goes undercover. Sure they need a SAS unit to get him out if he's captured, but it's always been random units once they realised it's too hard to just get one unit to rescue him. So they didn't mean that, they couldn't have meant they would actually go undercover with him because the SAS is trained for war and teamwork, not spying.

His thoughts were interrupted when he reached the sergeants door. He gave a quick knock and a voice boomed "Enter."

When he opened the door, two pairs of eyes stared at him. He cursed under his breath when he saw the second pair of eyes. Those eyes belonged to no other than Ben Daniels. Fabulous, MI6 just had to pick him.

Ben decided to break the awkward silence.

"Hello Alex, I hope you are feeling better."

"Hey Ben, I'm feeling fine. You?"

Alex decided to play the teenager he was supposed to be. The sergeant looked shocked and he thought that if he acted the emotionless spy, the sergeant might just have a heart attack.

"I'm okay, nothing exciting. Broke my arm on my last mission, I've just recovered which is why I'm back, to top up my training."

Yeah, right. Alex knew Ben was sent here to keep an eye on him but before he could say anything the sergeant cleared his throat.

"Cub, you're back."

Ah, looks like he's still in shock, he sounded like he was chocking on the words.

"Yes sir."

Alex decided that he needed to snap the sergeant back into life so he stood at attention with a hard, emotionless face and cleared his eyes to give off a cold look. He knew he could scare quite a lot of people with this look but he didn't feel like beating around the bush and wanted the sergeant to cut to the chase.

The look on the sergeant's face was priceless before he put on his mask and became the cold and emotionless sergeant he had come to know and love.

Well, maybe not the love part.

Yep, defiantly not the love part.

Before the sergeant could say anything, another knock on the door made the sergeant boom "Enter."

The door opened revealing three people Alex had wished to never meet again.

Hell on Earth just got worse.

* * *

_This chapter probably wasn't very exciting but I just wanted to set the scene and tell the story of how the other characters are feeling. The next chapter will have heaps more of Alex in it and I know that Blunt and Jones were a bit out of character but I thought that after two years of working with Alex, they would have started to care a bit even if it's only a teeny tiny bit. I hope you all enjoyed it and I would love some comments about how I could improve._

_I really appreciated the reviews I got from the last chapter, if you have the time please review, it makes my day to know that people enjoy my story._

_Ally  
_


	4. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or any other characters from the series._

_

* * *

_"K-unit I believe you have already met these agents."

Eagle had his mouth open in shock and openly stared at Alex and Ben as if they had appeared out of thin air.

Snake looked happy, shocked, and curious all at the same time and was staring at Alex as if he wanted to check him bit by bit.

As for Wolf, let's just say he had his infamous glare on.

Oh, and the new guy. Well, he looked new. He was looking at Ben and Alex as if trying to determine if they were a threat.

"Sir, is that a teenager?"

That seemed to have captured everyone's attention and the Sergeant looked like he didn't know how to answer. It wasn't a hard question to answer but the Sergeant didn't really want to come to terms about a teenager on his camp that was to stay there permanently.

"Yes, Lynx, that is a teenager."

The Sergeant said so with such a defeated voice that if you didn't know what he was talking about you'd think he'd just lost a war.

Ben cleared his throat thinking that they should probably give the Sergeant some time to get the idea of a teenager and former SAS soldier coming back to his camp as MI6 agents. He also wouldn't mind the rest he could acquire once he gets to the barrack K-unit was staying in. He did have a long day and a good sleep before being driven to the ground would be good.

"Sergeant, I think we could all get to know each other better back at the barracks. We've all had a long day and I'm sure you have many things to get back to."

"Of course Fox. It's great to have you back. You and Cub will have evaluations tomorrow. Have a good night soldiers."

They made their way out of the Sergeant's office and back to the barracks in complete silence. Eagle was bursting with questions but felt a little intimidated by Alex's emotionless look and the glare on Wolf's face didn't help either. Snake had a very thoughtful face on and Lynx just kept glancing at Cub trying to be inconspicuous but failing quite badly.

Once they were back at the barrack K-unit was staying in, Wolf pointed out Alex and Ben's beds which were added in since there is normally only four members in a unit. They had put them both closest to the door which was fine with both of them since it's good for a spy to have a quick way out of any situation at any place.

Quite frankly, Alex thought of being in the SAS a mission since he couldn't really be himself, not that he really knew who the real him was anymore, but he didn't trust them. Any of them. He only trusted Fox a little bit since he had worked with him before but just by being a MI6 agent told Alex that he could not trust this man completely if at all.

Everyone went to sit on their own beds which didn't feel that much different from the floor. Alex looked around and saw that his bed was pushed against the wall directly opposite Fox's and he had Snake on his left with Eagle next to him. Eagle's bed was pushed to the wall too and on the wall between his bed and Lynx's, which was opposite his, there was a window large enough for Alex to jump out if need be.

After locating all exists, which wasn't much, Alex looked directly to the bed in between Fox and Lynx. He knew it belonged to Wolf but he figured that if someone was going to start the interrogation that he knew was coming, it might as well be the team leader.

"What are you doing back here brat?"

So he still didn't like him. Fantastic, he's in a camp with SAS soldiers who will probably all despise him once they see him and his own unit leader wants to bully him. Oh, how he was enjoying this.

"Cub, is it true that you're injured?"

Ah, so that was why Snake was looking like he wanted to pull him apart in the Sergeant's office. Well, he's not sure about who stands where in this team but with only that sentence he had figured out that Snake was probably the one who cared for them all, not only on a medical bases but in everyday life too. That's probably why he asked about his health before anything else.

"Yeah, but it's not that bad, I'm fine, and I only need a week before I can start physical training."

"Let me check."

"I'm fine Snake, the doctors have already checked me out and I'm really tired so I'm going to hit the sack."

Snake opened his mouth to say more but Eagle cut him off.

"Awww, but Cub, you have to tell us the stories 'bout you're missions and tell us how you saved the world!"

Eagle whined and then finished with his hands in the air and an over enthusiastic smile. He didn't know that he had been right about the saving the world part and had said it as an exaggeration.

After a while and Cub still hadn't responded, Eagle started pouting and started to make his way to Cub's bed. Fox stopped him before he could touch Cub.

"Let him rest, he needs it."

Fox stared at Eagle and gave him a look which said 'I'm serious, don't push it' Lynx felt like it was time for him to ask some questions and the rest of the night went on with K-unit firing questions at Fox while he tried to dodge them and give away as little as possible.

Unknown to them, Alex was awake throughout the whole thing and had listened to Fox trying to cover him while K-unit tried to dig deeper and deeper.

* * *

Alex woke up gasping and sweating from his nightmare. He checked his watch which displayed 4:49. He got out of bed and headed for the showers. He had hoped his nightmares would have stopped by now. After two years of doing this he would have thought he would have gotten over it. But it wasn't as simple as he had thought.

No matter what he did, he couldn't avoid them. At first they were about the people he had killed or when he was captured and tortured. Then he got over those, now it was always about Ian, Jack, Tom or Sabina. Sometimes he even had nightmares about Yassen Gregorovich blaming him for his death.

Alex could never escape the nightmares that haunted him each and every night. The only time they seem to stop is when he's on a mission. He could never explain why but every time he is on a mission, the nightmares go on pause, as if they know he's in a life threatening situation and need all the sleep he can get.

As Alex walked back from the showers, he spotted Ben walking towards him. He considered hiding since he didn't want the MI6 agent to question him, but he figured that since Ben woke up, he would have seen Alex wasn't in bed and would no doubt ask him about it. He would rather face Ben alone than a MI6 agent with a whole SAS unit backing him up.

K-unit were already curious, he didn't need to give them more reasons to question him. So he kept walking, he stopped once he reached Ben and waited for the man to say something.

"Where've you been?"

"Showers, needed to clear my head."

"You alright?"

"Yeah, fine."

Ben seemed to consider saying something but in the end decided to let it go. He gave Alex a sad smile and walked off towards the restroom.

Alex looked on with sad eyes. He knew Ben didn't believe him, he knew that Ben probably knew about his nightmares too. Spies all seem to be light sleepers and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's wrong, but Alex didn't want to deal with anyone, they all tell him to see a therapist or talk to them. They all say they get it, but they never really do.

They get parts of what he's been through, but never the whole thing. No one's been through what he's been put through. No one his age would ever understand and no other spy would get him since no spy was his age. They didn't have people look at them like they're a joke when people were told they were a teenage spy, they didn't have people look at them with pity in their eyes when they see them battered up in the hospital, they didn't have people trying to kill them because they saved the world, and most importantly, they don't have the weight of the world resting on their shoulders again and again.

No one would ever understand what it was like for him, but sometimes, just sometimes, he wished that someone would come along and say 'I get it' and actually mean it. He wished that someone could help him with his nightmares, help him get through his life. Although he never gave up, Alex wanted a rest.

Two years of saving the world with only enough time to recover from his injuries is a big strain, mostly for someone his age, but he didn't want to complain. He knew that wishes stay wishes and they hardly ever come true, but he couldn't help himself, he just wanted a rest. He wanted a rest from missions, from nightmares and from the spy that he was.

He pretended to be asleep when Ben got back and he kept pretending until Snake woke up. He waited till nearly everyone was up before pretending to wake up himself. He really didn't want someone trying to wake him up because although he was awake, he didn't know what his reaction would be if someone started shaking him. Frankly, he didn't want to know.

"Cub! You're awake!"

A hyper Eagle shouted while jumping up and down on a spot. He looked like a child receiving candy. This did not bond well for Alex and he hoped that Eagle would stop soon before he loses his control and smash him into the wall.

"Cub you've got to tell us the amazing stories of how you became a spy! Foxy here hardly said anything last night."

Eagle whined with a pout while Ben was growling at Eagle for the nickname he used.

_So Ben didn't tell them about me…_

That was good for Alex and he gave Ben a small smile of gratitude when no one was looking.

"Cuby! Cuby! Cuby! Tell-"

"SHUT IT EAGLE!"

Ah, looks like Wolf has finally had enough of Eagle's whining. Though he told Eagle to stop, if you looked hard enough you would be able to see the curiosity hidden behind his powerful glare. Not that his glare fazed Alex at all, no, he had seen way too much to be scared of Wolf's glare anymore. But Eagle seemed to cower under Wolf's glare and he kept his mouth shut. How long that would last was unknown to Alex but he had figured out that Eagle was the child of the team and probably made the bad situations they got into seem funny and lighten the mood.

So we've got the leader, the medic who was like a mum, the child and now he just had to figure out Lynx. He hadn't said much and Alex was starting to get wary. People who kept to themselves normally have something big and bad that they wanted to hide and although Wolf didn't say much either, Alex knew that was part of his personality and that it was completely normal. But Lynx didn't seem like the type who said as little as possible during all times, he just seemed like he was keeping to himself in front of Alex.

Any other day at any other place Alex would have investigated but he was wary in this place, it was filled with soldiers that could turn on him in the blink of an eye and he didn't want to start another round of questioning. So he decided that he should just observe from the sidelines for now and maybe Lynx would give something away at training, people tend to be easier to read when they were doing something instead of just walking like Lynx was doing now.

Although you could read someone by the way they walk, Lynx just walked like a normal soldier. His footing was bold and strong, he kept a faster than normal pace like every soldier and his movements weren't graceful or subtle. He didn't bother checking around him like Alex was doing, although to the normal eye, Alex would just be walking like a normal teenager walking with a bunch of soldiers. They wouldn't see the way his eyes roamed the grounds, spotting all possible hiding places, places a sniper could be stationed, people who could be threats or places that might have a trap set up. No, to the normal eye, Alex was just a boy who looked out of place in the bunch of soldiers.

Of course Alex can make his movements seemed like a trained soldiers so that he didn't look out of place, he figured that people would be more curious as to why a teenage boy could impersonate a soldier so well that if you didn't know him, he'd just be another soldier to you than if they just saw a teenager who looked out of place with the soldiers.

* * *

The whole mess seemed to freeze when they walked in. Murmurs of conversations could be heard and both spies did not like it.

"So he's the boy-"

"-who turned spy-"

"-bit young isn't-"

"-here before-"

"-was SAS then-"

The young spy and former soldier did not like the attention, as spies they were to attract as little attention to themselves as possible unless they wanted the attention and they both really didn't want the attention now.

They took their breakfast from the cook and walked with K-unit to an empty table. They didn't think anyone would bother them but before they could take their first bite, a man with who stood like a statue walked up to them. His muscles bulked out from under his uniform. He stood tall with tanned skin and dark brown hair. His eyes were a chestnut color and he spoke with a deep voice.

"Aren't you that brat called Cub or something?"

Alex really wanted to kill Blunt for putting him through this but at this moment he couldn't do much apart from reply.

"Yea, who are you?"

Alex couldn't be bothered playing the teenager so he used an emotionless voice and stared at the man with cold eyes. He grinned on the inside when he saw the man shiver and smirked when he stumbled on his words before forcing his voice to sound confident and clear.

"Wh-Whale, I'm Whale. What's it to you, gonna call mommy and tell her there's scary, bad men here and ask her to pull you out?"

Ben had to hide a grin when he heard the man speak, the man was trying his best to sound confident and daunting but failed quite miserably. He reminded himself to ask the Sergeant to give these men some lessons on subtleness and better lying skills because although he seemed to have fooled some men, the more observant could tell from his voice that he was faking and his eyes and posture gave away the rest.

"Oh, so you're admitting you look scary and are a bad person? Well, that was easy, I didn't even have to ask."

Whale's face turned bright red and he lunged at Alex. Instead of hitting Alex, he hit the edge of the table and broke it. He looked up to see Alex standing behind him with a calm look on his face. This just angered him more so he threw a punch which Alex caught. Alex bent Whale's arm behind his back and whispered by his ear.

"I'd keep your hands to yourself and next time I wouldn't go throwing myself at a stranger whose abilities are undetermined. I could have killed you for your foolishness so if I were you I wouldn't bother me again unless you want a broken neck."

Whale was deadly pale by the time Alex finished talking. He let him go then took his tray and dumped the rest of his breakfast into the bin. He knew he should have finished breakfast but he really didn't want to deal with more questions from his unit and the way people were staring at him was making him uneasy.

* * *

Alex checked his timetable once he was back in the barrack. He had the same things as K-unit but instead of therapy and the one hour free-time, he had tutoring lessons with the teacher MI6 assigned him. He was to sit out in all the physical activities for a week. They had said it would've been a good idea to spend the time on working with his tutor and getting as much work done as possible before he can start physical training.

He folded his timetable up and made his way to his first class. He thought about how the soldiers would react when they find out he speaks perfect Arabic with no trace of an accent. As he walked, he felt some twinges of pain in his arm. He had forgetten that he was injured when he had fought Whale and he reminded himself to check his arm after the lesson.

He walked in and found that more than half the class had arrived and wondered about where he was going to sit. The problem was solved when Ben waved at him and indicated to a desk next to him. Alex sat down giving Ben a nod and he saw Ben open his mouth but before he could say anything a tall man walked in speaking Arabic slowly and clearly.

"_Good morning class, I hope you have all practised your Arabic in your free-time. I believe I was told we have two new students with us today. Would you please stand up and introduce yourselves to the class."_

Alex didn't know if the man was testing them or trying to make fun of them by embarrassing them in front of the SAS soldiers. He stood up and looked at Ben silently asking him if he wanted to go first. Ben gave a nod and started speaking in decent Arabic.

"_I'm Fox, I'm a former SAS soldier, I joined MI6 after training and has been working for them ever since. I speak good enough Arabic to understand and communicate with people from countries speaking Arabic but I am not fluent in this language."_

Ben spoke slowly and although he tried to pronounce everything clearly, he still made some mistakes, but he was good enough to understand what people were planning if he was listing in on people conversations. He wasn't good enough to go undercover in Arabic speaking countries if he had to act like a local man but if he didn't try to speak so clearly, he could go as a tourist and people would underestimate his Arabic.

While Alex was thinking about this, he didn't realise it was his turn to speak until Ben coughed to catch his attention. Alex began in a medium pace speaking the standard Arabic. He could speak in eight dialects but since the teacher spoke in standard Arabic he might as well speak standard.

"_I'm Cub, I've been here before for fourteen days. I work for MI6 and can speak Arabic fluently. I can speak standard Arabic and eight dialects."_

The teacher was shocked that the young boy in front of him spoke Arabic with no trace of an accent and spoke the language as if he spoke it every day. He decided to test the boy so he started speaking in a heavy dialect the words flying out of his mouth.

"_And how would a boy like you know how to speak Arabic so well? You say you can speak eight dialects, can you understand what I am saying and speak in this dialect to me?"_

The teacher had picked a dialect spoken in Iraq, thinking that a boy like him wouldn't learn a dialect spoken in a war zone. He did not know that Alex had learnt that dialect for just that reason.

"_I have a teacher who teaches me languages she thinks may be useful to me in my line of work and she believes that I may be needed in Iraq in the future."_

Alex did not know exactly why his teacher Natalie would think he would be needed in Iraq but she had proven to him that she knew her stuff and could teach Alex a lot of useful things, so when she had asked him to learn the dialect spoken in Iraq, he had done so without questioning. He accepted the information she gave him and he had learnt from the beginning that pushing her for more information that she deems isn't necessary for him to know is useless.

The teacher looked even more shocked that the boy spoke just as fast and had no trouble changing into the dialect, speaking as if he was from Iraq. The teacher thought for a moment before saying more, this time in standard Arabic so that the more proficient of the class could also understand him.

"_Since you are already fluent in Arabic, you can take the Persian class that your unit take on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You will take this class for the whole six days of the week that you are taught languages. It will be better that you learnt another language than just sitting here listening to me teach the rest of the class things you already know."_

Alex didn't know how to reply, he debated about telling his teacher that he already spoke Persian fluently, although he wasn't as good in it as he was in Arabic, he was sure he had no accent. He decided that he should tell the teacher so that he doesn't waste another hour tomorrow in a class he didn't need.

"_Sir, I speak Persian fluently too. I was wondering if I could spend the hour with the tutor MI6 assigned to me so that she may teach me languages I have not learnt yet."_

Alex wasn't sure if the SAS only taught these two languages but he had already learnt the most common languages in the world and he doubt they had a language to offer that he didn't already speak fluently in. Plus, Natalie was so much better than these people. More entertaining too.

"_I will have to speak to the Sergeant about that, take a seat. Maybe you could help the students who have more trouble with this language than others."_

Alex was surprised, he didn't show it but he had expected the teacher to have pulled another shocked face. Though, people did always say that after spending some time with him, nothing seemed to shock them about Alex anymore. He was literally full of surprises.

He spent the rest of the class listening to the teacher teach the class some complicated words in Arabic and he learnt that the teacher's name was Mr. Bahar. He also learnt that Lynx was the language expert in his unit and that Eagle couldn't speak Arabic even if you bribed him with candy. It wasn't the most interesting class since he knew everything, but he did learn a lot about the people around him.

At the end of class, he thought he saw a figure in black running towards the barracks. He raced outside trying to spot them again, but all he saw was soldiers everywhere. He cursed and started running towards the barracks, hoping to get there before the figure.

* * *

_Thank you to all of those who reviewed my story. It is great to get told that people still want me to keep on writing and that they enjoy my story. I'm not sure 'bout some of the facts in this chapter both about the languages and characters. I forgot if Ben ever knew how to speak Arabic but if he didn't, then just pretend that he learnt when he got back from Australia. I'm not too sure about the whole dialect thing either but if you know that I've got something wrong, then please point it out to me and I will change it. I thought the story needed some women in it so I decided to make Alex's tutor a women. I'm thinking 'bout pairing her up with either Ben or someone from K-unit, if you have someone you perfer her to be with then please tell me. So, who do you think the figure is? Do you think they're here to harm Alex or help him?  
_

_I would love to know what you think of it so far and if you wish for me to continue, also do you prefer shorter chapters like I had before and for me to update sooner or longer chapters like this one and for me to spend some more time on them. Please tell me what you think, and pretty please would you review, like I said before, reviews make my day :)_

_Luv,_

_Ally  
_


	5. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or any of the characters from the series.  
_

* * *

Alex ran as fast as he could towards the barracks all the soldiers were staying in. His injuries slowed him down but he was determined to find the figure. When he arrived and couldn't find a person in sight, he headed off to the room he was sharing with K-unit. He opened the door slowly, looking around the room trying to spot if anyone had been in there.

He took a couple of steps forward when he saw that nothing was out of place, he didn't notice the knife that came at his neck at a lightning fast speed until it was too late. An arm wrapped itself around his neck, pressing the tip of the blade to his neck. He knew that if they pressed harder then he would choke to death on his own blood.

The door clicked shut behind him and he knew that no one was there to help him anyways. He felt the intruder's breathe on the back of his neck and he suppressed a shiver.

"So Alex, getting rusty are we? Or are we just being overconfident and think that by being in a camp filled with SAS soldier that we're safe?"

Alex grinned when he heard the voice, he wouldn't admit it out loud but he had missed the woman after spending weeks with her at a time. Her deadly but casual voice brought him a feeling of safety he hadn't felt since Ian had died.

"Hey Nat, sorry. I was searching for an intruder, they were dressed in black. You seen them? And about the whole letting you press the knife to my throat thing, which you might want to remove, it's because I'm injured."

Alex stated as if it explained it all. Natalie ignored his question and instead decided to comment on his excuse.

"Yeah? Well I'm not sure about other people but if I were trying to kill someone I wouldn't go up to them and ask them about their health and then say 'If this isn't a good time for me to kill you, I'll just come back later.'"

The arm around his neck relaxed a little bit and he wondered if he could disarm her. He rammed his elbow into her stomach, winding her temporarily. He felt the arm tighten but before she could do anything, he grabbed her arm and bent it at an angle that could dislocate her shoulder. He bent her wrist to disarm her but she lashed out with a kick sending him flying.

"I thought I taught you ages ago that fighting me was useless."

Alex groaned from where he was on the ground remembering her first attack on him a year ago, he remembered her telling him that he would never win a fight against her and that he should save his energy 'til he gained some more experience, not that he didn't have enough, he just didn't have enough to fight her. And win.

He looked at the woman in front of him today. He had to hide his shock when he realised that she was dressed in black, she must have been the figure that he had seen earlier on. Her chestnut hair was tied up in a ponytail with her side fringe clipped back. Her hazel eyes had a way of making you feel as though she knew everything you were thinking about. It was unnerving at first but Alex got used to it.

"How many years of experience do you have anyways?"

Natalie laughed at this and replied with "Looks like we'll start today's lesson with subtle questioning."

God, nothing gets past that woman. She knew everything and yet told nothing. It had been hard work for both Alex and Nat for them to get to where they were today. They both were very suspicious people who didn't like to talk about their past but as time went on, they started to trust each other. Alex would tell Nat bits of his past and in return she would tell him bits of hers.

They spent an hour on subtle questioning, Natalie getting Alex to question her in different languages, but she never allowed him to ask her questions about her actual self. She would right down her fake identity on a piece of paper and they would have a conversation with him subtly questioning her. She never told him what info she wrote down so he had to ask as many as possible, she also made it so that she could lie about some things using the signs she had taught him about someone who was lying and he would have to remember what the lies were at the end of the conversation.

"I've got to attend a first aid course, I'll be back and after that we'll have five hours before I've got weapons class."

"Kay, I'll see you soon, and Alex, what's changed in this room that tells you of my being here?"

Alex smiled having already checked the room subtly in their conversations knowing that Nat wouldn't just let him go.

"Snake's bed that you're sitting on has wrinkles in the sheet, the book on my bedside table has been moved to an angle slightly different to before and my bag has been looked through."

She smiled at him and clapped him on the back telling him that he had done well and was free to leave. Alex walked out of the barrack and just as he started heading towards where the first aid course was being held, he remembered that he forgot to ask Nat where they were meeting. He sighed as he walked off knowing that it would be no use going back, she would have already disappeared.

* * *

The first aid course wasn't very interesting, most of the stuff he had already learnt from either Ian or Scorpia. He reminded himself to ask the Sergeant to sign him up for a more advanced medic course, but judging by the stares everyone was giving him, the soldiers would not appreciate his being there. He knew he could ask Nat to teach him but he wasn't sure how the Sergeant was going to take to that since she was already teaching him languages.

As the teacher droned on about how to bandage a bullet wound, Alex thought about what his K-unit and Ben were doing. They were probably at the more advanced medic training and Alex remembered that they had shooting practise after that. Alex was suddenly grateful that he was injured. He didn't want to see the reactions they would have when they saw how good he shot. He knew he couldn't avoid it forever but the longer the better. He knew they would ask questions and he thought that they probably wouldn't be satisfied with 'classified'.

"So you're the kid Cub right?"

Damn, he had been careless again today. While people were getting up and leaving, a guy had walked over to his desk. Judging from his accent, he was German. Alex didn't want to fight him even though he wasn't nearly as big as Whale. The man didn't seem like he wanted to pick a fight, he just seemed curious so Alex decided he could answer some of his questions if it meant he didn't have to fight.

"Yeah, I am. Who are you?"

He directed this to the guy and the three others behind him who were probably his teammates.

"I'm Falcon, that's Leopard, Owl and Zebra. We're R-unit."

Leopard was the tallest of them all, he had short blonde hair with dark blue eyes. He seemed like the fighter of the team, standing in a position as if he expected Alex to lash out right there and then.

Owl had big eyes to go with his namesake and black hair with grey eyes. He stood in a relaxed posture and looked merely curious as he stared at Alex.

Zebra was all skin and bones, he had dirty blond hair with sparkling green eyes. He looked nervous and stood at the very back of the group. He probably heard about Alex's stunt in the mess hall and didn't want to fight him.

Falcon was obviously the leader of R-unit. He stood tall and proud, he was the hardest to read out of the group but Alex was a professional, he could see the underlying curiosity and power coming from the man. His pale green eyes held a fierce look but his posture was relaxed. He had brown hair chopped short in a messy way.

"Nice to meet you, do you need anything?"

Alex asked as politely as possible. The fight he had with Whale had ripped some of the stitches on his arm and he felt intense pain from his back. He probably reopened the cuts on his back when Nat had thrown him. He hadn't felt it before but he often didn't feel his injuries until awhile after. He wanted to get Nat to check them and he couldn't do that if he's here talking to these men.

"Well, we were just curious as to how a boy like you got to work for special ops. I mean, you can't be more than eighteen."

"Yeah, and they said you were here two years ago too."

Owl had added after Falcon had finished.

A smirk threatened to appear on Alex's face. He held it back and answered in the most casual way he could while his back and arm were burning.

"It's just luck I guess, I don't know why they picked me and it's not like I do very important work anyways."

Alex didn't want people to know it his past and he thought that if he said he only did simple missions then they wouldn't be as curious. And about the luck thing, he sure has luck, he's got the luck of the devil.

"Look, I've got to go, my tutor's waiting for me and I don't want to keep her waiting."

He didn't wait for a reply, instead he just stood up and walked off. He heard Zebra's voice fading off as he said "Did he say 'her'?" Alex smiled thinking about how the soldiers gossiped like school girls and that Nat was going to have people drooling over her for days until they got that she didn't date.

* * *

When Alex got back to the room he was staying in, he found a piece of paper on his bed.

_Hey neighbour, guess which room I'm in._

Alex picked up the piece of paper and stuffed it into his pocket. He went out into the hallway looking to find the clues Nat would have left him.

He looked at the door on the left of his door before moving on to the door on his right. He hoped that she was given a room close to his, he didn't want to have to check the whole hallway, there were twelve doors and he didn't feel like checking them all bit by bit because he knew Nat wouldn't give him an easy clue.

He sighed when he found nothing on the door to the right of his. He moved on to the door directly in front of his and wondered what Nat's definition of neighbours was. He nearly jumped for joy when he found a strand of hair too long to belong to any of the soldiers. He picked it up and after inspection, he was sure it belonged to Nat.

He gave a knock hoping she wasn't going to test him before letting him in. He really needed his back checked and his arm wasn't feeling any better.

The doorknob twisted and opened revealing a room with one bed, a desk resembling the Sergeant's and another one exactly like the one they had in Arabic and first aid. There was a sofa with a vase of roses on the coffee table. A large bookshelf covered the wall beside the sofa. The room was nicely decorated and had lots of space since it was meant to house four SAS soldiers.

"Alex," Natalie began in a wary tone "why didn't you tell me you spoke fluent Arabic in front of your class and asked for me to tutor you instead of attending Persian classes?"

Alex felt confused at this and ask "I thought you said my Persian was good enough, that I just had to practise it occasionally and that I wouldn't need more lessons on it."

Nat sighed and began to explain "Alex you don't need Persian classes but next time you make an arrangement concerning me, please let me know. I didn't like it when the Sergeant asked me to go to his office and then started discussing your language abilities with me and asking me about what I was going to teach you when I had no idea about what was going on."

Alex felt ashamed when Nat had finished. He knew that she didn't like it when people kept things involving her from her and he knew that he should have told her earlier. She had trusted him enough for him to make decisions concerning her without him asking first but by not telling her afterwards, he had broken her trust.

"I'm sorry Nat, it slipped my mind. Things have been a little crazy here and I was enjoying my time with you so much that I forgot about that."

Alex felt stupid at the end of his excuse, he was a spy for god's sake! He shouldn't forget these things. Then a wave of pain made him wince, he saw that Nat had seen and was looking at him in concern.

"What's wrong Alex, are you hurt?"

"Yeah, I think I might have torn the stitches in my arm from when I was fighting Whale. I might have reopened the cuts on my back too from when you threw me to the floor."

Natalie took off his shirt carefully, trying to keep the amount of pain to a minimum. He remembered the first time she had taken his shirt off for him. He had blushed furiously and when she had seen his face, she had laughed giving him a playful wink. After the first couple of times when she had tended to his injuries, she had told the doctors that she would look after his injuries he acquired from his missions so that he didn't need to visit the hospital so much.

After awhile, he got used to her touching him and removing his clothes. He had later understood why she had volunteered to look after his injuries. It had been because of the fact that she had hated hospitals too when she had been a field agent and felt that he would be more comfortable if he didn't have to visit the hospital so regularly.

"Well, the stitches are fine, you just need a new bandage and I need to clean it. The whip marks on your back are a different story. A couple of them have been reopened like you had thought and these will be less pleasant for you when I clean them out. It'll sting pretty badly."

Natalie got a basin of warm water and a towel, she started by cleaning his arm. To keep his mind occupied, she offered him the deal she had offered every time after a mission of his.

"So how about the deal with you telling me about your mission and me answering five questions or telling you about a mission of mine."

Her voice was casual, as if they were having a conversation over a cup of tea instead of her cleaning his cuts.

"Love to, but today let's do the five questions thing after, I've got a couple of things to ask."

"No problems with me. Remember, no hiding info from me, don't just tell me about the parts you want to tell or think aren't that bad. Tell me everything; you know that I won't judge."

"I know."

Alex started the tale of his latest mission focusing on remembering the facts instead of the pain he felt when Nat brushed over his cuts with the towel.

He remembered the first time she had offered him the deal. He was wary when he accepted and wondered if he could get away with telling her as little as possible. But when he started, he found that he couldn't stop. He needed to tell someone, to hand over some of his burdens. He had always declined MI6's offers for a therapist, but when he talked to Nat, he found that it was different.

For one he wasn't talking to a complete stranger, Nat had spent two weeks time with him before offering the deal to him. He also found that she understood, she never pushed him and only ever said 'I get it' when she really did.

When he first met her, she had told him that she was a CIA agent who has been assigned to tutor him. Nothing more, nothing less. She kept her secrets just like he kept his. He learnt more and more about her and her past when she answered his five questions every time he told her about his missions.

He remember her stating that he couldn't ask questions about her family or personal past, just like she won't ask of his. It was his third time making the deal with Nat that he learnt that she had been a field agent before becoming a desk agent. She had said that she had only been a desk agent for a week before being offered to teach him and she had said that it had been the most boring week of her life.

When he had asked why she became a desk agent, she had said that it had been a family issue. He didn't press for more when he saw that the light in her eyes had disappeared when she said that and he didn't like the Natalie who looked emotionless and cold.

After that time, he had been more willing to listen to her missions than asking questions because he had found out from Mrs. Jones that Nat had a high enough clearance from the CIA to look at his files. He had asked her why she hadn't and she had replied with "I believe it is better for people to tell others of their past and experiences on their own. I know that I could never truly be friends with someone who looked at my file to find out about me. Alex, I want you to learn to trust me and tell me in your own time about your past, just like I will tell you about mine when I feel ready."

He thought that if she could control her curiosity and not look at his file, then he could let his questions wait until she was ready to tell him the answers without feeling dignified to tell him because of the deal.

He had truly appreciated what she had done by not looking at his files, but he felt even more curious than before, he wondered how a woman no older than thirty could understand so much of the spy life and have a high enough clearance to read his file. As far as he knew, his file had a level 2 clearance that only three people at MI6 had; Blunt, Mrs. Jones and their top agent which was him. To have a high enough clearance from the CIA, would make Nat their top agent or at least one of the best.

But if that were the case, how come they let her become a desk agent and then agree for her to come to Britain to teach him. She definitely wasn't permanently injured since she could fight so well and she doesn't seem like the type who got sick of doing field work.

"Then when I thought I was going to actually die, I heard shots coming down the hall and I remember praying to God, wishing that the people firing shots were the SAS."

He wasn't sure if Nat purposely timed her cleaning so that she finished when he finished or if it was just a coincidence.

"Well, that probably wasn't the best mission you've had so far but I'm glad they didn't break you. It was hard enough to fix a stuffed up you, fixing a broken you would be even harder!"

Their laughs echoed down the hallway of the barrack startling the soldiers who had gotten back.

"I wasn't that bad! For a teenager I am very well behaved and I definitely wasn't stuffed up!"

Alex smacked Nat's arm playfully and they started a mock fight. Natalie was careful to not hurt Alex but she knew that Alex needed some type of activity each day and by not allowing him to train physically, Alex would go looking for something to do. She really didn't want him to piss off a soldier and start an actual fight. The one in the mess wasn't too bad when Alex had explained what had happened but with his luck Nat knew he would find some form of trouble if he didn't use some of his energy.

Their mock fight continued until they were laughing so hard that they had tears in their eyes and very, very bad cramps.

"We are never doing that again! You hear me! Never ever, ever again! My stomach hurts like hell and what's my unit going to think when they see me with puffy red eyes?"

Natalie only laughed harder at this and soon they were both panting for breaths again. This time Nat spoke before Alex and said "Alex it's your fault we started this anyways! You better have some serious questions to ask me, if it's humorous then it can wait! My stomach can't take anymore of this craziness."

She sent Alex a stern glare at the end of her declaration but in the state that they were in, it was more like a funny face someone would pull to a baby which made Alex laugh all the more.

They heard rather than saw the doorknob turn and before they could do anything, the door opened revealing Wolf with the rest of his unit behind him. Wolf was glaring so hard it looked like he was squinting, Eagle's jaw was nearly touching the ground, Snake was openly staring looking very, very shocked. Ben was trying to control his laughter and his shoulders shook with the effort. Lynx just looked confused and kept glancing between the two as if he'll figure something out if he kept looking.

Two words came to Alex and Natalie's minds as they looked at K-unit.

_Oh shit.

* * *

_

_I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Next up: the soldiers meet Natalie. Guess what their reactions are gonna be! Lol I'm writing that part right now and I thought that maybe the next chapter should have more humor in it. I want to thank all of those who reviewed and please keep on reviewing! Tell me what you think of Nat's character and her relationship with Alex. I just thought that he needed someone to cheer him up when he got back from missions even if they weren't close to him in any way._

_Reviews! Reviews! Reviews! Keep them coming!  
_

_Ally xoxo_


	6. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.  
_

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL?"

Wolf's voice boomed from the doorway into the room then back out the doorway and across the hall. Alex was surprised that none of the other soldiers have come running down to see what was wrong, Wolf's voice was loud enough for the rest of the country to hear.

Natalie looked down at Alex, she suddenly understood why the soldier had reacted like _that. _She had her legs on both sides of Alex and they were breathless and sweaty from the mock fight. To make matters worse, Alex's eyes were red from the tears he had shed when he had laughed too hard. She felt a blush coming up and forced it down. Alex and her didn't have a relationship like _that._

Alex cleared his throat and asked Nat to get off him for a sec. Wolf scowled at his wording and Eagle went bright red. Alex would have laughed if things didn't feel so awkward. Nat got off him gracefully and Alex could see the thousands of thoughts going through Nat's mind. He wondered how she was going to solve this little problem but whatever way she planned to explain, Alex hoped she would explain _soon._

Wolf was looking like he was going to explode, if Alex didn't know about Nat's skills in combat, he would have been scared for her life. Wolf's hands were balled into fists at his sides and his face was red with anger and Alex hoped that he wouldn't do something stupid. We wouldn't want our lovely team leader to end up in the infirmary would we?

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING RAPING A CHILD! YOU-"

"Geez calm down! I wasn't raping anyone and I certainly wouldn't rape Alex. I know it looks like it from the position we were in before but we were only having a mock fight. That's how we ended up like that."

"I'M NOT STUPID! IF YOU WERE JUST FIGHTING THAN WHY WOULD HE HAVE RED EYES? YOU SICK RAPIST, YOU'RE COMING WITH ME TO SEE THE SERGEANT AND I'LL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE YOU SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN JAIL! IN FACT, JAIL SEEMS TOO NICE A PLACE FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU! GO ROT IN HELL!"

Nat took all of Wolf's screaming calmly and Alex wondered if she really was going to go to the Sergeant with Wolf. The Sergeant will probably jump to the same conclusions and Alex knew that they wouldn't listen to what he had to say. They would just think he was a scared, traumatised little boy who was in shock or something.

No one could get to Wolf fast enough as he swung his fist at Nat. Nat blocked the hit easily and looked at the man in front of her. He was muttering under his breath cursing her with all the curses he knew, if she had been any other lady, she would have blushed. Instead, she just let his arm go and walked calmly out the door.

Wolf was still cursing but when he saw her walking out, he lunged. Unfortunately for him, spy instincts had told Nat to move and he ended up banging his head on the doorknob opposite Nat's door. He had knocked himself unconscious and earned himself a black eye. While Snake helped his team leader to the infirmary, Eagle, Lynx and Ben walked with Alex and Nat to the Sergeant's office.

Looking back, Alex realised that the most he had ever heard Wolf say was today. Except he didn't exactly say it, more like screamed it at Nat. He realised with a start that the reason for Wolf's anger was because the man cared for him. He felt uncomfortable as these thoughts graced his mind. He didn't like Wolf, the thought of the man caring for him in any way made him uneasy. Thinking about what the Sergeant's reaction to all this was going to be, he sighed.

* * *

The Sergeant jumped in his chair when he heard a knock on his door, he had no meetings arranged for the day so the news beyond his door was either very good or very bad.

He boomed an "Enter" and prayed that he wasn't getting another agent or teenager.

When the door opened revealing a blushing Alex, a nervous Lynx, an Eagle that was quiet and drawn back who had a concerned and nervous look on his face when he normally smiled brightly and cheerfully was not the Sergeant's definition of 'very good news'. Ben and Natalie revealed nothing to the Sergeant with their emotionless faces so he decided to simply ask what it was that was going on.

"Hello boys and girl, what are half an unit, two spies and a tutor doing here?"

"You see Sir, we heard crashing noises down the hall so we followed it and opened the door, then we found this woman-"

Eagle stopped mid sentence when the Sergeant's words finally caught up to him. It was Lynx that worded his thoughts aloud.

"Tutor? What tutor?"

Lynx was looking nervous seeming to figure it out what it meant before the Sergeant answered him, but Eagle just stood looking thoroughly confused. A flash of understanding flashed across Ben's face and his posture relaxed, he still showed no emotions but Alex could sense the relief flooding out of the man. He realised that Ben probably thought that Nat _had _done something to him.

"Natalie is Alex's tutor, MI6 hired her to teach him. Now, what did you find in the room."

Lynx finally understood and relaxed as well but Eagle had no idea why Lynx and Fox had relaxed. He still thought Nat had tried to rape Alex so he carried on with his explanation.

"We found this woman sitting on top of Cub and he had tears in his eyes, it was so sad! You've got to do something Sir!"

Alex would have laughed if he didn't think the Sergeant would kill him afterwards. Eagle talked like a child and Alex had to wonder if he really was a child, just a very big and tall child. The Sergeant's eyes landed on Alex, he didn't look at him for more than five seconds before moving on to look at Nat. For a man who just got told that a woman tried raping a child in his camp, he looked very unconcerned. He then did something that surprised Alex and the men that even the two MI6 agent's mouth's opened in shock. The Sergeant raised an eyebrow and grinned at Natalie.

"Want to explain why my soldiers think innocent defenceless little you would be trying to rape her student who is younger than her by ten years?"

Alex was staring at the Sergeant, he had used such a casual tone as if he was discussing what was for dinner with his wife. He didn't miss the twinkle in the man's eyes as he had said 'innocent defenceless little you'. Alex knew Nat wasn't innocent or defenceless in any way but he did wonder how the Sergeant knew and knew her well enough to tease her.

Nat let out a bark of laughter and grinned back at the Sergeant.

"Oh you know me, what fun would the first meeting with Cub's unit be if they didn't think I was raping him!"

She threw her arms up and made a bewildered expression. The Sergeant chuckled and Lynx felt like fainting. The Sergeant never showed them any other faces apart from the cold hard face they were used to. Seeing him chuckle made him feel faint and he wondered if he was dreaming. Eagle staggered and reached out to grab Ben for support. He leant on the man and if Ben hadn't been a spy, he would have fallen over in shock.

Alex just stared between the two and suddenly remembered a conversation he had with Nat four months ago.

"_I never want to return to that hell hole ever again!" Alex said while Natalie was doubled up in laughter._

"_It wasn't funny! They bullied me so much and the Sergeant just ignored them and let them kill me!" Alex whined, he had felt weird showing Nat so much emotion and doing something so… teenager like._

"_Sorry Alex, it's just funny how fourteen years old you could survive that long in a SAS camp. The stealing of the matches was cleaver though. If you ever go back, I expect ten times better got that brat!"_

_She tried impersonating a sergeant's voice and this time Alex doubled up in laughter._

"_Talking of the SAS, Alex. Did you know that I have a cousin who's SAS? I think he's a Sergeant too."_

"_A cousin? Wouldn't he be a bit young?"_

_Nat laughed again but this time it was more like a chuckle._

"_Oh I think he's old enough. He's like forty something now it's because his father's my mother's oldest brother who happened to have a kid at a very young age."_

_Nat tried to think of where her cousin had last been reported to be but couldn't quite remember. She pushed it to the back of her mind and listened to Alex carry on talking about his first mission._

Alex stared at the Sergeant and Nat and voiced his thoughts out loud.

"No. _Bloody._ Way."

He stared and almost pinched himself to see if he was dreaming.

"He's your _cousin!_"

Alex pointed an accusing finger at the Sergeant while he let his anger out on Nat. He felt as if she had deceived him and purposely lied when in the back of his mind he remembered her saying she needed to ask about where her cousin was.

"I had no idea he was the Sergeant who tortured you when you were fourteen until this morning when I saw him and he said you'd been here before."

She held her hands up in the air looking regretful and ashamed. He knew that she probably blamed herself for what he had done to him now that she knows the mean Sergeant he had told her about is her cousin. He felt bad and his anger towards her dissolved looking into her eyes and seeing that she had taken the blame for something that had absolutely nothing to do with her. He vaguely remembered her trying to cover up for him when he had missed a flight for a mission and taking on the blame herself causing Blunt to spend an whole hour yelling at her.

"Tortured? Natalie I never tortured the boy!"

"Aiden be quiet."

Ben was shocked to hear the woman talk in that tone to the Sergeant while Eagle looked on with glee. He seemed to have gone back to the cheerful Eagle know that he had figured out Nat hadn't raped Alex. Lynx looked wary, Ben realised that he was scared of what the woman, what's her name again? Natalie. Lynx was scared of what Natalie was going to do to them. He felt fear rising up in his chest when he remembered Wolf, if she twisted the truth a little or maybe even just telling the Sergeant the truth, that a SAS soldier tried to attack her when she had explained the situation to him already and stated that it wasn't what it looked like, could get Wolf binned.

He tried to hide his fear but he saw Alex giving him a questioning look and knew that he was unsuccessful. He decided to get it over with before he scared himself to death. He cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention.

"So, umm, what's going to happen to Wolf?" he didn't say it but in his mind he added _who had attacked the Sergeant's cousin._

"What about Wolf?"

The Sergeant sent Ben a questioning look but before the former SAS soldier could reply, Nat opened her mouth to explain.

"Oh nothing much. Knocked himself unconscious and got a black eye when he fell onto the doorknob. He should be fine when he wakes up. Fox was just informing you so that you know he might not attend the rest of the night's activities."

Eagle and Lynx didn't notice it but Ben realised that Natalie knew exactly who they were. Not only that but she made sure to call Alex by Cub in front of them. He realised there was more to this woman than just looks. She was beautiful but not the type who turned heads wherever they went. Ben wondered why she had not told the Sergeant about Wolf's attacks.

The two obviously didn't know each other and Wolf hadn't made the best first impression. She knew about Alex's previous time at the camp so she must know about Wolf's bullying since she had said that the Sergeant 'tortured' him on his first visit. Alex wouldn't just tell her about the Sergeant, if he told about the Sergeant then he obviously told about Wolf, Snake, Eagle and Fox bullying him.

"Well Aiden, you might enjoy my company but I have better things to do than standing here and chatting with you. For one your hospitality is awful, you never even offered me a seat!"

She stated as if it were a horrible crime. The Sergeant simply glared at her and she walked out before he could say 'dismissed'.

Alex sighed as if she were his child and sent the Sergeant an apologetic look. He raced after the woman with Ben, Eagle and Lynx racing after him.

* * *

Back in Nat's rooms Alex collapsed onto Nat's bed and groaned. Then Ben and Lynx walked in, Ben still trying to figure Nat out and Lynx regretting sending Eagle to explain what had happened at the Sergeant's office to Wolf and Snake. He'll probably add random things in and take bits out leaving him to tell his two teammates what actually happened.

Nat sat graceful on her chair behind her desk and smiled a wicked smile. Alex sat up straight away, not liking her smile one bit.

"Say Alex, we've missed out on so much valuable study time that we might as well have a break this afternoon. We've only got half an hour till dinner and I thought that we could focus on enjoying dinner."

Her sweet and innocent voice did nothing to reassure Alex, it simply made him nervous and the look on her face spelled out trouble in capital letters. He didn't like how she said 'enjoying dinner', he knew he had described the horrible food the SAS served to her before and knew it wasn't the food they were going to enjoy.

"What are you thinking Nat? We don't need Blunt and Jones coming down here to scream at you again."

Alex still remembered the last time Nat had a look like that on her face. A week later and Blunt had woken up with a wig and make-up on his face. He had been dressed in a hot pink dress and there had been camera's planted in his bedroom. Alex, Natalie, Smithers and Mrs. Jones had the honour of waking up and watching Blunt curse and trip in the dress that was several sizes too small as an alarm clock.

Alex still doesn't know how she got into Blunt's house or even how she knew where he lived. Not only did she find out about Blunt's residence but she had also found Mrs. Jones and Smithers and planted a computer screen so that they may enjoy the beginning of the day with the company of a very angry Blunt.

Natalie had wanted to record it and play it so everyone at the 'bank' could see but Alex pitied the man and said that Blunt had been embarrassed enough for the day. He remembered her recording it and saying its useful blackmail material and he realised blackmail was as common as air in the underworld. You couldn't live without it.

He certainly didn't want to hear Blunt's shouts of fiery again and that look on Nat's face was too dangerous to stay. He knew she knew that he knew she was up to something so he sent her a stern glare saying 'don't you dare! We're in an SAS camp, you can have your fun at home but not here! No more trouble from you young lady!'

Alex felt like a father scolding his children but Nat was too scary when she wanted to play. Her definition of fun was his definition of disaster. Normally she kept him out of trouble but when she felt like they needed a laugh, she caused the amount of trouble one wouldn't cause in a lifetime. She was ruthless and dared to do what no man would ever dare to do.

When Nat wanted to play, no one told her 'no'. No one could stop her if they wanted but Alex knew that he could lessen the impact if he tried hard enough. He didn't want to think about what types of trouble Nat could stir in an SAS camp but he knew that she had the skills to do a lot of big and nasty things.

"But Alex!"

She whined while giving him a pout and cute puppy eyes that begged for fun.

"No! Nat we aren't at home, we can't just do what we want whenever we want! We don't need Blunt and Jones coming down here just to scream at you for hours! I don't need them to come down here."

He added the last sentence in with a quiet and resigned voice, he hang his head and knew that if he played his cards right, Nat would make sure to do something that wasn't big enough for the Heads of Special Ops to come down. He didn't have to worry about the Sergeant's wrath, Nat was his cousin and they seem to get on alright so he wasn't that big a problem.

Alex just hoped she would believe his act, that she would believe that he thought Blunt and Jones would send him off on another mission if they came to visit. She knew like he did that he would be lucky if Blunt let him rest for a month and even though the doctors said two months would be best, Blunt would need Alex soon enough. He was lucky they weren't shipping him off in a week's time when the doctors had said he could start physical training.

Nat knew that Blunt and Jones might care about Alex, she also knew that they wouldn't hesitate to use him if it meant saving the world. She sighed thinking about what the boy had already given up for the world. She thought about how she had started out looking after the boy and keeping him out of trouble, now he was the one looking after her and keeping her out of trouble. She drew in a breath and thought that the boy had enough on his plate with trying to keep the world out of trouble, he wouldn't have to keep her out of trouble too.

She certainly wouldn't want to cause Alex trouble and as much as she wanted to be a teenager and do what she did as a child once in a while, she would not do it if it caused Alex stress. She needed to be the twenty-six years old woman for Alex, not the playful teenager she liked to become for fun. He wouldn't appreciate her playfulness here, not when she could cause him to be sent back into the field without being fully healed.

She smiled at him, Alex recognised the smile as the 'I get it' type.

"I won't cause you any trouble. We can still have fun, we'll just have to be subtle. My cousin might figure it out but Blunt and Jones won't even hear wind of it. Foxy boy will keep his mouth shut about this, he can tell them what happens but not that we planned it."

Her gaze was directed at Ben at the end of her short speech and he gave the tiniest of nods. He was curious and as long it did no harm to Alex then he would not need to report it. He was only meant to report Alex's progress after all.

"What are you planning Nat because I swear, any plan of yours are always too successful in a way that is good for you but bad, very so bad for the rest of us."

"Alex sweetie, it may be bad for everyone here but you know I would've made sure you were safe! It wouldn't be that bad for them, I think most of them are going to enjoy the show better than you. Well, they'll enjoy what they see but you'll be the only one who could appreciate the show and enjoy it with me."

"I'm a little lost."

Alex thought that this plan of Nat's didn't sound half as scary as some of her previous plans that she had put into action but he was still a little wary. This was Nat in play mode, nothing is what it seems.

"Oh darling, I have a friend who specialises in seduction and she gave me some homework. I thought I might do the homework while I'm here. After all, where's a better place to practice seduction than an SAS camp full of hot, sexy soldiers who haven't seen a pretty lady in such a long time!"

She gave Lynx a wink when she said 'hot, sexy soldiers' and then turned her attention back to Alex. He sat completely still and the room was silent, all waiting for his response. He chuckled startling Lynx and Ben, they thought he would forbid it. They still wondered why the woman listened to the boy when she was meant to be the teacher.

"And here I was thinking you were going to blow the camp up or something equally dangerous. Seduction. Well, I hope you've done it before because it's not as easy as it seems. You are quite right, I'm going to enjoy this show!"

He gave her a charming smile and flirtatious wink thinking of one of his missions where he had to seduce a daughter of a madman.

"Sweetheart, of course I've done it before! Don't you worry about me! Just make sure to get a front row seat! Now boys, I need to get ready. Run along to dinner, I'll be there in…"

She checked her watch and realised she had fifteen minutes before being officially declared late.

"Fifteen minutes. One of you go to the infirmary and get Snake, Eagle and Wolf. Wouldn't want them to miss my fabulous show now would we?"

They walked out of her room, the two men thinking about how weird the woman had been while Alex thought about how disappointed the soldiers will be when they find out Nat doesn't date. He sighed thinking of how close he had been to being doomed. He thought of how he had been able to deceive Nat and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Oh well, it's only once, if I could do it again _then _I'll gloat, he thought.

This little playfulness from Nat he could deal with, who knows, he might even get a couple of good laughs and see the soldiers make a fool of themselves.

Yep, life definitely is better with Nat along on the ride.

* * *

_This chapter isn't the best chapter ever, I'm sorry if it was boring and OOC for some characters. I originally had a more humorous meetiing for Nat and Wolf but when i finished writing, it was a bit too long and the characters were very OOC. I wanted to get on with the plot, I didn't want heaps of long and endless chapters on introductions so after the next chapter, it'll be more exciting and more Alex and K-unit centered. Please review, I love them and I really appreciate the advice and comments I get._

_Ally :)  
_


	7. Chapter 6

The heads of every person in the hall turned, jaws dropped and eyes widened. Natalie smiled with satisfaction when all eyes were on her and she could see the drool on the chins of some soldiers. She gave the nearest soldier a coy smile and she swore he melted right there and then.

Alex stared at his teacher and friend, right now, he was certain the lady in front of him is a clone of Nat, she can't possibly be the woman who taught him how to fight dirty and how to mess up madmen's minds. Although, looking at her now, she's probably messing up all the soldiers' minds.

In her white halter neck dress, Natalie looked like a goddess. Her hair was down and shimmering, she wore just the right amount of make-up to make her look even more beautiful than a goddess. Her dress was a bit too revealing and clang to her form perfectly. It flowed out at her hips and stopped above her knee. She wore silver high heels that glimmered in the light.

Instead of the usual silent and graceful way she walked, she now walked with her heels clicking and swinging her hips to an invisible beat. The woman in front of Alex looked like a complete airhead, from the way she walked to the way she smiled. He hadn't heard her talk yet but he was sure she would sound like an airhead too.

He wondered exactly what Nat's job with the CIA was because she played her role so right that if he hadn't known the real her, he would have thought she was just a good looking airhead.

* * *

Nat walked over to collect her food but she made sure that everyone in the room got a view of her body. She was meant to write a report on how she had seduced the person and how they reacted to what she did for her friend who had given her the task. She always loved field work and although this isn't very exciting since she's done it before, she's still looking forward to what she could do. After all, she's never tried seducing a camp full of soldiers before.

She walked towards Alex's table and she made herself trip a little when she was sure she was near enough for one of the soldiers to catch her.

"Opps, clumsy little me!"

She giggled to add to the effect and she looked into the eyes of Wolf who was staring at her wide eyed. She gave him her best flirtatious smile and took a seat next to him. She made sure to sit a little to close and that he had a clear view of her cleavage. Wolf stared at her dumbfolded, looking like an idiot. She looked down at her food and pouted looking up into the eyes of the person opposite her.

"Gosh how do you eat this?"

She whined in a voice that was too girly to be her real voice. The whole hall was silent and when she declared this, everyone rushed to agree with her and try to get her attention. Nat was laughing to herself on the inside but she made sure to look at Eagle and Eagle only, even though the people at the tables near them were frantically trying to draw her attention.

Eagle looked at a loss of words and at the corner of her eye, she saw Snake send her a distasteful look. Nat focused back on Eagle and realised that although he didn't know what to say, he wasn't affected by her as he should be. Suddenly she understood and she had to control the smirk that was fighting to form on her face.

So she hasn't even spent one day here and already learnt about a secret affair. She decided not to waste time on him and looked to the person on the left of her who was not Wolf. She smiled coyly at Ben and put her hand on his thigh. She watched as he started to turn a nice shade of pink and nearly laughed at his face.

"Poor thing, eating food like this, I think you need a treat!"

She moved closer to him and was nearly pressing herself against him.

"This must be like, against the law or something!"

Alex nearly fainted when she used the word 'like', her voice was starting to get to him and he watched Snaked giving Nat the evil eye on the other side of Ben. He wondered if the man was jealous Ben was getting all the attention or just didn't like Nat playing his friends.

Ben knew the woman who currently had her hand on a very inappropriate place was just playing but he couldn't help the arousal that was making his pants feel a little too tight. He wondered how a woman who could change roles so easily and effortlessly be a tutor and not a top field agent. He's never met someone who could act as another person as convincingly as her.

Nat was grinning like an idiot on the inside and she turned to Alex who was opposite Snake and gave him a wink. She let her mask fall for a second so that he could see the twinkle in her eye that clearly stated she was enjoying herself. She then looked to Lynx who was sitting in between Alex and Eagle.

"So what's my hot soldier been up to?"

She asked him coyly and made herself blush as best as she could. She lifted her right hand and started twirling her hair. She wanted to burst out laughing at Lynx expression, he kept opening and closing his mouth and finally managed to choke out "I've been well."

She giggled again and opened her mouth to say more but the Sergeant's voice interrupted her.

"What's going on here?"

He stood in the doorway and he was glaring at Nat's hand that was still on Ben's thigh. Nat gave Ben a little squeeze and stood up. She then put on a bright smile and ran to the Sergeant. She jumped into his arms and screamed.

"Eek! Aiddy your soldiery friends are sooo cute! They're like, the hottest boys in town!"

The ones who had managed to close their mouth now opened them again. They stared at the woman who was hugging their Sergeant and nearly fell out of their sets.

"Nat what the hell are you doing? What do you think you're wearing? Take the damn thing off! Do you want me to tell MI6 to get rid of you because you're seducing my men!"

"Oooh, so they're your men. Well cousin, you could have just said. I mean, now I know why you're not married and all but it's nothing to be ashamed of! You have a whole camp full of men! It must be so much fun in bed! Gosh, you should so totally tell me the details Aiddy! You must get sooo much attention! I'm jealous!"

The Sergeant's face was as red as a tomato at the end of Nat's speech. Alex couldn't help but burst of laughing and ruin Nat's show.

Nat turned to face Alex and smiled a playful smile and in that second, she went from the sexy woman back to the espionage teacher.

"And _that, _Cub, is how you grab the attention of a camp full of soldiers."

She gave him a playful wink and walked out.

Looking around, Alex saw that Nat really did grab the attention of every soldier in the hall, if she didn't have their attention before, she definitely had it now. Alex realised that he hadn't laughed this hard in a long time and realised that Nat's aim for the day wasn't to seduce every soldier here, instead it was to let him release some of the tension and stress that had built up inside of him.

Thinking back, he realised that the actions she had done wasn't the best for seduction, no, it was best for making a fool out of K-unit and the Sergeant. Alex grinned thinking about how successful she had been.

He chuckled out loud and walked out with a smirk on his face, leaving behind a hall of soldiers staring after the weird woman and weirder boy.

* * *

The week flew by faster than Alex would have thought, he had spent his time attending classes with K-unit and learning from Nat in whatever time he could spare. She had gone back to the serious tutor and was working him harder than ever. She expected perfection from him and he worked hard to try to life up to her standards. He had learnt heaps in the one week than weeks combined because he had spent every second from the minute he woke up to the minute he fell asleep learning.

Seven days after he arrived, Alex woke up to a nice long run. He pushed himself harder than ever, determined to get better and fitter so that he could be ready for his next mission. Nat accompanied him and was pushing him as well. She had checked his injuries and thought that for him to live through his next mission, she was going to have to push him to the point of perfection. Too bad Nat's definition of perfection is better, stronger and smarter than everybody on Earth.

So at six o'clock in the morning, Alex had the honour of running beside Natalie who was too cheerful for someone running the hardest and longest route on camp.

"Come on Cub! Get going you're running like a snail!"

Alex personally thought he was doing quite well since the only person in front of him is Nat but she seemed to want him to be able to outrun her which is Alex's definition of impossible.

"If I were chasing you right now, trying to kill you and you're running at that speed, you won't even know how you died! Pick up the pace or you can quit all your lessons for the day and just keep on running until sundown!"

Alex pushed himself harder and felt his muscles screaming in protest. He knew he had to go faster otherwise he was pretty sure Nat would force him to run for the rest of the day.

Wolf, who was running behind Alex, felt like screaming. The boy in front of him was running faster than him and he was the best runner of the unit, and the boy's teacher who is faster than the boy was screaming at the boy about how he wasn't fast enough. Wolf felt like the world just got turned upside down.

Ben who was just a few paces behind Wolf, wondered again who exactly was the woman. He felt like she was a puzzle and he had pieces of it but every time he found another piece, the puzzle grew bigger. He wasn't surprised by Alex's stamina but he was surprised that the woman could not only keep up with the boy, but she could outrun him.

Lynx, Eagle and Snake wasn't within hearing range of Nat's shouts but they too, wondered how the boy and woman could run faster than them. They didn't know Alex and Nat had outran Wolf and Ben too, but just by outrunning them, they had surprised them.

At the end of the run, Alex was panting for breath. Nat hadn't taken part in his physical training before apart from combat fighting. She had let trainers from MI6 train him, she only taught combat because she said that in his line of work, combat fighting is as common as people. When there're people, there's a possibility of a fight, and for him, the possibility is quite high.

"Nat – how – the – how – can – you – run – so – fast?"

Nat looked at him and said "If you pretend your worst nightmare is chasing you every time you go for a run, you'll find you'll improve drastically."

Wolf near stumbled into them, he looked even worse off than Alex. Nat and Alex both worried that he might faint from lack of air from the way he's puffing and both stood in a position ready to catch him if he did faint.

Next came Ben who looked like he had just ran for his life, he looked just as bad as Wolf but unlike Wolf, he lied down on the ground in a very ungraceful way. If it wasn't for the rise and fall of his chest, they would have thought he was dead.

Lynx, Eagle and Snake came running towards them much later, not having seen how fast Nat and Alex were, they didn't push themselves further than normal. They headed down to the showers while Nat headed off towards the Sergeant's cabin to use his shower since there weren't showers for women on camp.

* * *

The day proceeded like any other with only minor differences. He still attended the classes with his unit and learnt a language from Nat but instead of staying behind when the unit did physical training, he joined them. Alex went over the assault course for the first time in two years and managed to improve his time to fifteen minutes and forty-eight seconds.

If the unit were surprised by this, they had _no_ idea what was coming.

In the afternoon, after the weapons class they had attended, the unit headed off towards the shooting range. Alex had dreaded the time when he would have to shot in front of the soldiers, he had feigned interest in weapons class but it would do him no good if he pretended to not know how to shoot. It would just waste his time and he was pretty sure Nat was going to be there to see how he did with a gun.

So when he reached to shooting range and a big muscular man came up to him and asked him if he knew how to shoot, he really wanted to say no but Nat's presence put him off and he made a quick decision.

"Yes sir."

"Do you know how to assemble a SIG Sauer P226?"

"Yes sir."

"Really? Well have a go then."

He didn't sound like he believed him but Alex didn't care, he'll just show the man that he could do it. He picked up the parts and assembled it slowly and carefully. He didn't need to show the man exactly how quick he could do it, no, that surprise is for later. Even as he did it slowly, he managed to do it in one minute.

He didn't wait for instructions from the man, he simply collected five cartridges and walked up to the firing line. He picked a lane with no one in it and started firing. He didn't aim like the soldiers were taught to do, he fired using instinctive firing that Scorpia had taught him. He knew there were five rounds, testing how good he was. It was meant to get harder towards the end but to Alex, the targets were much easier than the Scorpia targets.

When he had finished, he looked up to see the man frozen in place from shock with his mouth wide open. Nat was looking at the targets he had shot, not looking surprised at all. She looked up and started talking to him in a calm and collected voice.

"Well, Cub, that was alright, not the best but definitely not the worst. I think what we are going to work on aiming at different places. You'll use your knowledge of the human body to shoot in places that are fatal, and non-fatal so that you can chose whether or not they survive your bullet. The head and heart are obvious places for fatal shots but if for some reason you can't aim for these areas you could aim for the arteries. We'll work on identifying arteries and all that after this so that if you didn't want them to die, you would aim away from the arteries too. Now, let's go again, this time you're going to use a different gun. Just use the furthest moving targets and use a different gun for each round."

The man and K-unit just stared at Nat in shock, Alex didn't blame them. You don't meet a boy who can outshoot SAS soldiers everyday and you definitely don't meet a woman who tells the boy to do things SAS soldiers haven't even considered to do everyday.

Nat turned to the man and said "Thank you sir…"

"Panther."

"Thank you Sir Panther but I think I will be overseeing Cub's firearms training from now on, I'm sure you're already busy with training the soldiers."

"You will need to report to the Sergeant about that."

Panther still looked dazed but seemed to understand that he is not needed anymore and walked off.

"God Cub, when'd you learn to shoot like that? Teach me! Teach me!"

Eagle was jumping up and down with excitement and Alex wondered exactly why they let this man-child join the SAS.

"Eagle shut up! Stop jumping you're giving me a headache!"

Wolf shouted and Eagle sobered when Wolf glared at him and stopped jumping.

"Start shooting boys!"

They all went off to follow Wolf's order and Alex found a Browning Hi-Power in his hands. He disassembled and assembled it as fast as he could so that Nat could see how fast he could do it before standing at the firing line and emptying the cartridge.

When he finished with a near perfect score, he stopped to watch K-unit. He was surprised to find Eagle as the best shooter out of the unit, that was probably why they let Eagle be in the SAS. Ben wasn't far behind but Alex guessed that he had gotten better after joining MI6. Wolf was after Ben but he was better with riffles than pistols, Lynx got a better score than him with pistols but Wolf was better with bigger firearms. Snake was the worst of the unit, hitting randomly but only one bullet went off the target. Alex guessed that Snake was probably just the medic.

Although Eagle was good, he wasn't as good as Alex. He still had a long way before being anywhere near as good as Alex but if he got the training Alex had, he might be as good as him.

"Finished analysing them?"

"Ha?"

Alex turned around to find Nat's face an inch away from his.

"You finished analysing them?"

She nodded her head towards the unit.

"Yeah."

"Good."

She took a step back and handed him a sniper.

"Set this up and let's see how good you are with a sniper."

He took the gun and sighed thinking _this is going to be a long hour.

* * *

_

After a tiring hour in the shooting range with Nat, Alex headed back to the barracks to have his two hour tutoring session with Nat. She was walking silently beside him but before they could arrive at her room, a soldier stopped them with a message to go to the Sergeant's office immediately.

They both changed directions and went off in a brisk walk wondering what the Sergeant wanted.

Nat knocked and waited for the "Enter!" before stepping into the room. Alex followed behind Nat but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who was sitting in front of the Sergeant.

_What's Blunt doing here?

* * *

_

_I don't really know about firearms and all that so I'm sorry if I got anything wrong. I hope you enjoyed that all the same. So what's Blunt doing in the Sergeant's office? Is Alex getting sent off on another mission? Or is it something entirely different?__ Please review!  
_

_Ally xoxo_


	8. Chapter 7

Alex was laughing on the inside as he watched Blunt rant on about how immature he was and how childish Nat was in the same breath. Personally Alex didn't think there was much difference between the two but then he had never been too good in English class.

He enjoyed the view of Blunt's normally impassive face going red with anger and rage. He looked towards Nat who was standing beside him at attention but when he saw her expression, he unsuccessfully tried to force down a giggle.

"**WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?"**

Ah, so Alex has finally made Blunt yell. Now congratulations are in order!

"Alan I really don't get what's made you so upset! It's just some files and we simply rearranged them. We even put them in a special order so if you _really_ need something, we'll be able to find them!"

Nat finished with an overly cheery tone. Alex burst into laughter simply looking at Blunt's face.

"Girl do you know how long it takes to rearrange all those files? You messed them all up and now we're taking days just to find _one_ file! How the hell did you get in and mess them up and not get caught in the first place?"

Blunt was looking like a ticking bomb by the end, daring Nat to defy his order.

"Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."

Looks like Nat took that dare. Blunt looks like he wants to bash her head into the wall but Alex was pretty sure that he wouldn't. Then Blunt stood up and all of a sudden Alex wasn't so sure anymore, after all, they had just made the normally emotionless Blunt throw a rage, if he's ever going to lose control, it's going to be now.

Alex watched silently as Blunt took some deep calming breaths but the whole time Blunt was calming himself, Alex had been preparing himself for a fight. He kept his eyes trained on Blunt until a movement behind Blunt made him look straight into the Sergeant's eyes. _Bad move_, Alex silently told himself and unfortunately for him, Blunt took this exact moment to look at him instead of Nat and when he saw that the subject of his anger wasn't even paying attention to him, he pretty much exploded.

"ALEX RIDER IF YOU THINK YOU'RE SO GREAT THEN WHY DON'T YOU HEAD OFF TO THAT MISSION IN GERMANY THAT WE CAN'T FIND ANY AGENTS FOR!"

Alex froze and immediately his face turned ice cold and although he hadn't showed much emotion before, he was now looking downright terrifying with his frozen brown eyes and deadly posture. The room's temperature seemed to have dropped to below freezing in a matter of seconds and a deadly silence fell over the occupants of the room. For a second he thought he saw a flash of fear cross Blunt's face but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

"What did you just say?"

A cold, lethal, female voice echoed in the silent room and Alex could hear the Sergeant's quick intake of breath. Apparently he hadn't known that his cousin could be so cold and emotionless and _deadly._ If Alex hadn't seen Nat in mission mode, he would have been shocked too, the normally cheerful and fun Nat had disappeared and in her place was a professional that was the best at her job, which happens to involve killing lots and lots of people. Blunt must be peeing his pants by now, he didn't just have one deadly agent in front of him, no, he had _two _lethal operatives that were both the best their country had to offer. They could kill him as easily as one might kill a fly. He was _so_ dead.

Alex felt like beating the hell out of Blunt and then asking him two weeks later if he wanted to have another beating. Alex was confident that their answers to each other would be the same: _Hell no. _Alex really didn't want to go, and he wasn't even healed yet!

"I said that Alex will go on a mission in Germany since we do not have any agents available right now."

Blunt's whole body visibly tensed when Alex reached for his gun at the back of his waistband. Resting his hand casually over the bump that Blunt could not see, he opened his mouth and the words that came out froze everything in its path.

"I would not send me on that mission if I were you. The doctor said at least one month and now _I_ say at least two."

No one had to ask about what he was talking about, it was obviously about his rest period. Blunt's left hand was slightly shaking at the end of Alex's short speech and when he accidently looked into those two bottomless brown eyes that were daring at him to say otherwise, he shivered as a imaginary breeze blew over him.

Blunt looked at the young man in front of him that had once been an young boy, innocent and carefree, now he had been transformed into a lethal agent that had killed just as many people as the so called 'bad guys'. Blunt had no doubt that the man in front of him would shoot him if he pushes him too far, he also knows that this very man hidden in a boy's body could not only ruin MI6 but also turn the whole of England upside down if he makes one small wrong move.

The once powerless boy he had manipulated two years ago had died and now standing in front of him was a young man that while MI6 could threaten him, he could threaten MI6 back ten times better. They had destroyed the reluctant teenage spy and now they had a powerful operative that only worked with them for the people of the world. They knew that one wrong move and they'll be facing war from countries and terrorists; they weren't naïve enough to think that throughout these years Alex Rider hasn't made connections with those on the 'bad' side.

"I am sorry Alex I must have lost my temper. You will not be bothered by us for at least two month but I would appreciate it if you could restrain yourself from messing up the workings of MI6, our agents have had a very hard time getting everything back in the original order and it is very hard to find agents with a high enough clearance."

Alex knew that he had scared Blunt with the simple move of reaching behind his back, but to tell the truth, he probably wouldn't have shot Blunt even if he did make him go on that mission. Anyways, he doesn't even have a gun back there, but that's something he should probably keep to himself.

The Sergeant looked shocked to see the head of MI6 stand down to a mere boy when _everyone_ knew that Blunt always got what he wanted, after all, he was a very powerful man. What the Sergeant didn't know was that the boy standing right in front of him was even more powerful than the Queen right now.

Alex seemed satisfied by Blunt's apology and request, although he didn't outwardly show it. He wanted Blunt to be nervous around him for as long as possible, sometimes he _really_ despises the man.

Nat however, was glaring at Blunt and as if sensing someone was trying to kill him with a very intensive glare, Blunt turned his attention onto Nat. However, Alex watched with amusement, Blunt kept a wary eye on Alex and his hand that was now resting casually by his side. The man knew how quick he could draw his gun and he wanted to be ready in case he said or did something to push the boy over the edge.

"You think having a couple of your little agents reorganise a couple of files is 'hard', try saving the world every couple of months with hundreds of madmen trying to kill you and _then_ you can tell me what 'hard' is."

Nat's voice was bitter and biting, baiting Blunt for a verbal spar and Alex nearly sighed with relief when Blunt simply gave her a look and turned away. The teenage spy didn't have enough energy to deal with the adult spy and head of MI6 trying to kill each other with words.

Blunt knew better than to use the words 'You are dismissed' with the two spies, he may have done so with many other agents, but he'll never do it to these two. He just knew that they'll make a fuss about him ordering them around if he ever used such words to them and he didn't dare try it now, not when both had just calmed down from their ice cold rage.

"If that is all then you could go back to your rooms and rest, I'm sure you'll need it."

Blunt was careful to say it as a suggestion and he could almost hear the normal sarcastic teenager retort with a 'No that's alright, I'm fine where I am' sometimes he'd even state that the chair he was in seemed very comfortable for a nap and then stay there just to piss them off. Of course, today he wasn't in a chair but it didn't seem like he wanted to stay anyways. Even as the young man walked through the door, Blunt was expecting something along the lines of 'Thank you, please don't come again another day' from the witty boy but all he got was a silence that still chilled him to the bone.

* * *

When Blunt had arrived at the 'bank', he went straight up to his office and asked for Mrs. Jones.

A few minutes later he heard a knock and without waiting for a reply, the door opened and instantly a minty breeze hit his face. His second in command strode confidently into the room, her heels clicking behind her on the wooden floor.

"How was your trip?"

She asked as pleasantly as how someone would ask their boss about a holiday aboard. Blunt's little visit to the not so little Alex Rider had been far from a holiday and he really needed to rant to someone about it.

"Well, it was interesting to say the least…"

Mrs. Jones listened as her boss recounted his visit to a special teenage spy and to say she was shocked by his response would be an understatement.

"And then when he walked out I saw that he didn't even have a gun at the back of his pants!"

Blunt hardly ever showed emotion but in front of his deputy, he allowed himself a little bit of ranting space. He had been and was still quite pissed off when Alex Rider walked out and he saw that the boy didn't even have a weapon at the back of his waistband. He really had been scared and to know that he had feared something that hadn't even been there just made him even madder at the turn of events.

Mrs. Jones was sucking intently on a peppermint and her hands fiddled nervously with the wrapper that she had not yet tossed in the bin. Her face was emotionless but you could see traces of worry and fear flickering here and there.

When the buzz from reception informed Blunt that his six o'clock appointment was here, Mrs. Jones left taking her minty breeze with her but what remained on both of their minds was one Alex Rider.

* * *

That night Mrs. Jones fell asleep thinking about the fourteen year old boy she had met two years ago and the sixteen year old weapon she had helped to create. She wondered when the day would come for she was sure one day Alex Rider was going to break free of MI6, she just hoped that he would not be doing this through his death.

On the other side of town, Mr. Blunt sat in his home office thinking of the fourteen year old boy he had blackmailed and the sixteen year old young man that he had caused to lose everything. He thought back to a time when he had had more power over the boy other than the other way round, and with a flick of a switch, he left the now dark room, leaving behind the thoughts of a boy who had lost too much, too fast.

Leaving behind the thoughts of a teenage boy's life he had destroyed.

* * *

Reviews I luv reviews! please leave a comment about what you think of this chapter and maybe what you'd like to see in the future! I always luv the reviews I get so please, please, please press the button and review!

Ally =D


End file.
